Electromagnetic Bicycle Damper (EMBR)

Details

• Designed and validated the internal electromagnetic coil for an actively controlled magnetorheological (MR) fluid mountain bike damper, utilizing a 26-AWG copper coil and steel core operating at 20W and 2A to generate an estimated peak 0.15 Tesla magnetic field across a 2.5 mm radial gap
• Modeled magnetic field strength and spatial geometry using the Biot-Savart law and complete elliptic integrals in Python, ensuring field lines oriented perpendicularly to fluid flow to maximize yield stress activation
• Designed the magnetic flux path through steel damper components so the field crosses the annular flow gap perpendicular to fluid motion, switching the MR fluid from Newtonian behavior to a Bingham plastic that stiffens the damper on demand, while balancing space restrictions, power draw, and heat generation
• Owned the electromagnet design and calculation verification within an 8-person interdisciplinary team, sponsored by ARUS MR Tech, that retrofitted a production front suspension fork with a semi-active MR damper; the completed fork matched commercial semi-active forks (RockShox Flight Attendant, Fox Live Valve) on weight while undercutting them on price